What is visibility coaching?

Visibility coaching is a type of coaching that is focused on guiding and supporting people with getting visible or “putting yourself out there”, which is a necessary yet challenging step for sharing your work, finding opportunities and clients, and being your fully expressed, authentic self.

If you are a creative, entrepreneur, coach, healer, or any other professional whose work is requires promoting and marketing yourself, visibility is a necessity. The more willing you are to put yourself out there, the more you can create trust with your audience, build a strong brand, and do the work you want to do.

Visibility coaching can help if you feel stuck, nervous, or just don’t know where to start with being seen, sharing your message, or talking about or sharing your work.

Is visibility coaching for you?

Visibility is not just the act of promoting yourself or marketing yourself, but the process of being seen. To go much deeper, visibility is a basic human need and one that all of us desire on some level or another.

Visibility coaching is coaching around the various aspects involved in being seen, being heard, and showing up as your authentic self.

Visibility coaching can support:

• Coaches, including life coaches health coaches, relationship coaches, and business coaches
• Healers, including energy healers, Reiki healers, intuitive and spiritual healers
• Holistic and wellness practitioners, like yoga teachers, massage therapists, nutritionists, etc. who are building online businesses
• Creatives, like writers, artists, and creators who need to sell and market their work, which often feels so personal
• Leaders and change-makers, who want to share a new vision, way, or process and need to present that to an audience

Whether you’re offering services to clients sharing your creative work, or simply want to feel more comfortable and confident expressing yourself and sharing your voice, you can benefit from visibility coaching. 

What is a visibility coach?

A visibility coach is a coach (ideally a trained, experienced, trauma-informed, and certified coach) who supports their clients on the various aspects of getting visible.

What does a visibility coach do?

Some of the things a visibility coach does include:

• Identifying the thoughts and feelings behind the hesitation to get visible, whether in business or otherwise
• Learning nervous system regulation techniques and knowing how to support your nervous system when visibility feels challenging.
• Helping you work through visibility mindset blocks, including past experiences, limiting beliefs, or assumptions about visibility in business
• Identifying and choose ways to get visible based on your own strengths, preferences, and goals
• Setting goals and measuring the effectiveness of visibility efforts and defining ways to strengthen and improve personal and business visibility
• Coaching you through practical steps to to approach visibility with more confidence and ease
• Helping you set energetic and physical boundaries to support yourself through the sometimes challenging process of getting visible

A visibility coach’s approach is highly subjective and dependent on their own experience, expertise, and training. 

When would someone consider hiring a visibility coach?

The best time to consider hiring a visibility coach is when you are feelign nervous, anxious, or any trepidation around being seen or heard on a broader scale. This may include:

1. If you’ve decided you want to launch your dream business, but you’re terrified of putting yourself “out there”

2. If you want to take your career or business to the next level and you know you need broader exposure, but it terrifies you.

 3. If you want to feel more comfortable speaking up, so you can better advocate for yourself and others

4. If you feel like you’re not being your full self in your work or your community, and you want to rectify that.

5. If you have a big goal – like writing a book, doing a Ted talk, starting a podcast – but you feel held back by your reluctance to be visible.

What to look for in a visibility coach or program

When choosing coach for visibility, you want to find someone who is familiar with, understands, and is adept at coaching around the challenges of visibility. 

• If you’re an introvert, you might choose to work with an introvert-friendly visibility coach who can better understand your needs for rest and planning ahead when it comes to marketing and visibility.
• If you identify with being a highly sensitive person, you might want to find a coach who is adept at working with sensitive people and can help you protect your energy and avoid burnout.
• If you have any past trauma around being seen and heard, you will want a visibility coach who is trauma-informed and understands how trauma can affect showing up and talking about your work.

In short, you want to look for a visibility coach who is 1) qualified, 2) familiar with your situation, and 3) skilled at and proficient at helping.

It’s best to qualify your coach by interviewing them and asking them questions before you begin any coaching relationship.

What is visibility in business?

If you run a business and that business requires you to sell, market, and promote the services, especially if you deliver the services, visibility is usually required.

In this case, business visibility refers to being seen and heard by to the audience you want to serve and the public at large. Visibility also refers to the ability to share your expertise, connect with an audience, and invite people into the experience of working with you.

Related to promotion and marketing, visibility in business is important to attracting clients and growing your business. If your ideal clients can’t find you, they can’t hire you. So they need to know you exist, and they need to like you and trust you. That’s what visibility coaching can do for you in business.

• Visibility coaching can help you understand how and where to show up, based on your own skillset and superpowers
• Visibility coaching can help you feel confident to share your expertise, even when you don’t feel like it
• Visibility coaching can help you find the best ways to share your message

Visibility is more than social media

When people think about visibility, they usually think of showing up on video and using platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube… to name a few. When in truth, visibility is much broader and deeper than that. 

Visibility means:

• Being able to show up as the face and voice of your business.
• Confidently articulating what you do and communicating the value of working with you.
• Sharing your mission and your gifts with your audience, the public, and the world at large

Sure, making Reels can help you achieve the above goals. But there are myriad ways to market yourself and share your voice outside of using social media.

Key benefits of visibility coaching

Visibility coaching can help you as a creative, business owner, and individual in many ways. Here are a few benefits:

• Overcome the fear of being seen. The fear of being seen or being visible is a real fear and one that often stands between people and a big goal. But you can address this fear and take steps to make it more approachable.
• Increase your sense of self confidence. Visibility is like a muscle. Visibility coaching can help you practice using that muscle and increase your sense of self-confidence over time.
• Increase your brand awareness. When you increase your business visibility, you increase your brand awareness and your ability to attract a broader audience.
• Enhance your credibility and authority in your niche. Visibility coaching can help you put yourself out there more and share your expertise, which establishes trust with your audience and positions yourself as an expert in your field.
• Expand your network, opportunities, and client base: When you use visibility coaching to enhance and build your personal brand, you make it easier to connect with potential clients and partners who can support you in achieving your business goals.

How I approach visibility coaching

As an MBA and certified coach, when I decided to make visibility coaching a part of my offerings, it was based on experience. Many of my business and marketing clients struggled with “putting themselves out there” in their business or creative ventures. 

Many clients I’ve worked with have been introverts, sensitive people, or otherwise turned off by the idea of performative visibility (the kind we often see on social media). These people struggled with imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and a general fear of “What will people think?”

But no matter how good the marketing or business plan was, if they weren’t willing to show up, it wouldn’t work. So addressing the inner aspects of visibility, including the fear, the mindset, the nervous system regulation, became a key part of the work.

Once they were able to feel confident, courageous, and find ways to show up authentically, consistently, and sustainably… visibility became much easier, and even fun. Once that inner aspect is addressed, the strategy and action plan is the icing on the cake.

Trauma-informed visibility coaching

In 2021, I added another layer to my work by becoming a trauma-informed coach. Realizing that many of us who struggle with being visible often do so due to past trauma and experiences, it was important to me to be able to hold space for clients needing that deeper layer of support.

What I’ve learned through my work as a visibility coach is that the more we can address our fears and concerns, while taking mindful, small steps forward (without pushing ourselves off the proverbial ledge), the better — and more confident — we feel. It is possible to overcome the fear of being seen and any other concerns about being visible, all through effective coaching.

Today, I offer a trauma informed integrated approach to visibility, which benefits any client, whether or not they resonate with having experienced trauma. Holding this safe space for my clients allows them to go deeper, get to the core of any visibility concerns, and support them to show up in a way that reflects their authentic selves.

What you can expect when working with me as a visibility coach

Working with me, you can expect to dive into both the inner work (your thoughts and feelings), as well as the outer work (your strategy and actions) that help you make the most out of your visibility and marketing.

My proprietary SHINE Visibility Method Framework™ was created to help you address all teh aspects of being visible, in an order that works to support you to feel more comfortable and confident being seen.

Our work in visibility coaching may include:

• Mindset coaching to understand and explore your thoughts around being visible and marketing yourself.
  
• Nervous system informed steps to guide you deeper into the feelings that arise when it comes time to put yourself out there.
• A deeper dive into your purpose and priorities so you stay connected to your vision and goals.
• Strategic promotional and marketing planning, based on your strengths, your business, and your ideal clients.
• Energy management practices, so you get visible at your pace, without burning out.